Say Oh Say #17: A Motley Miscellany
Hello again! So glad you could join me in my newsletter. Please, pull up a chair next to the fire. Yes, that's it. Would you like some hot chocolate? There, now you can get all warmed up––you're dripping wet! How's the work been going this week? I see, well that's certainly something. And the family? Mm-hm, just like them isn't it? Oh don't mind old Charkie there, she loves a good scratch behind the ears. How have I been, you ask? Well…
I’m Clearing the Docket
I collect far more items to share than I actually post, and over time that’s meant a bit of a backlog in my bookmarks folder. So for this week I’m sharing the links, videos, and stories I find just as interesting as my usual fare, but which I somehow just haven’t gotten round to sharing. Enjoy!
Video
Drums are Never Animated Correctly. I can honestly say I’d never given any thought to what animated instruments would sound like if actually played. Here’s a clip from the Simpsons that shows just how jarring the result really is.
At 84, the World’s Oldest Female Sharpshooter Doesn’t Miss. She first picked up a gun in her 60s and hasn’t looked back since.
Crab Canon on a Möbius Strip. Long-time readers know I can’t resist these crazy Bach inversions, and at some point I think I decided I needed to stop posting so many of them. But this is one of the best I’ve ever seen –– a short musical theme played forwards, backwards, forwards and backwards simultaneously, and, finally, on a möbius strip.
The Grammar of African-American Vernacular English (Ebonics). A great primer on the unique grammar of AAVE. I have a passing interest in languages and never knew the details of a lot of these rules.
1990 Interview with Vietnam Veteran. A striking personal account about the confusion and disillusionment of a war that often gets overlooked.
An Introduction to Caspar David Friedrich. One of my favorite painters. Could’ve done without all the snow effects throughout the video, though.
A Recreation of the Destruction of Pompeii. This was surprisingly affecting.
Everything Else
Ever wonder how many people have ever lived?
10-Year-Old Cancer Survivor Granted Wish to Meet Namesake President Jimmy Carter. It’s too much! My crusty, cynical heart can’t take it!
The Adventures of Annie Londonderry, First Woman to Bicycle Around the World.
And Finally…
The Bulwer-Lyton Contest, a competition to write the worst opening sentence of the worst novel never written.
2022’s winner was:
A lecherous sunrise flaunted itself over a flatulent sea, ripping the obsidian bodice of night asunder with its rapacious fingers of gold, thus exposing her dusky bosom to the dawn’s ogling stare.
As quoted by TYWKIWDBI, a couple of other favorites include:
The countdown had stalled at T minus 69 seconds when Desiree, the first female ape to go up in space, winked at me slyly and pouted her thick, rubbery lips unmistakably--the first of many such advances during what would prove to be the longest, and most memorable, space voyage of my career.
Their relationship hit a bump in the road, not the low, graceful kind of bump, reminiscent of a child's choo-choo-train-themed roller coaster, rather the kind of tall, narrow speed-bump that, if a school bus ran over it, would cause even a fat kid to fly up and bang his head on the ceiling.
Thanks for asking! Same time next week? I’ll keep the kettle on.